1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a retainer for a ball grid array (BGA) fan, and more particularly to a BGA fan retainer which requires no predetermined space on a substrate to mount the fan thereon, such that an operator is able to easily mount the BGA fan in a compact space.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional method of mounting a BGA fan is shown in FIG. 7. A substrate (90) provided with a centrally located die (91) has a plurality of bonding wires (92) which are provided to electrically connect the die (91) to the circuit on the substrate (90). A plastic cover (93) is then formed over the die (91) to complete the packaging. Furthermore, a plurality of solder balls (94) arranged in a matrix form are formed on the bottom of the substrate (90) to electrically connect the die and bonding wires to a mother board, interface card or other electrical device. As with ordinary integrated circuits, a fan (95) is mounted on top of the cover (93) to dissipate excess heat generated by the packaged integrated circuit chip. Normally, the the fan (95) is glued to the cover (93). However, a simple glued connection between the fan (95) and the cover (93) will withstand a shock or vibration test required before the product shipped to the market.
To overcome this defect, a modified fan (80), as shown in FIG. 8, has a pair of extensions (82) (only one is shown) diagonally formed on the bottom thereof, such that the fan (80) is able to be securely mounted on a mother board (98) by means of a bolt and a nut. Although, the fan (80) is able to be fixed on the mother board (98), an additional predetermined space must be left for mounting the fan, which can be a difficult thing to do, especially on a printed circuit board (PCB).
The present invention aims to provide an improved retainer for a BGA fan to overcome the aforementioned problems.